The invention relates generally to electronic parking meters, and more particularly to facilitating the maintenance of electronic meters.
Many sites that deploy electronic parking meters may also include a combination of electronics placed with the electronic metering mechanism within the parking meter housing, such as an electronic lock. The electronic metering mechanism and the electronic lock are linked such that a memory located within the lock is kept current in terms of what coins have been dropped through the electronic meter. The electronic lock will only permit access to the cash when an encrypted challenge is authenticated, and once accessed the lock will also dump the coin count data.
The electronic metering mechanism has a peripheral port to which external devices can be attached, the electronic lock is just one of those. During the operational life cycle of an electronic meter, the meter can be subjected to much physical use, and periodic maintenance is required. In many cases the electronic metering mechanism will be removed from the housing because of damage caused by physical abuse, vandalism or normal wear and tear, or for maintenance that is best carried out back in the shop.
Whenever an electronic metering mechanism is removed from the housing, another must be placed into the same physical housing. The physical housing location usually is part of a group of meter housings that geographically represents a unique configuration with regard to rate (cost of parking per hour), time limit (maximum time that can be purchased), special periods (on/off times or rates that change at different times), and the like. In some cases, the specific meter location will have unique attributes to those meters around it. An example would be the one or two special limited parking meters placed in front of some businesses to encourage high turnover. When a new metering mechanism is placed in the housing, it must be configured to behave like the other electronic meters within that geographical housing group or in some cases to that specific location. In order to reconfigure an electronic metering mechanism, the person doing the maintenance must first determine geographically where he is and then once he is sure, he reconfigures the meter so that it follows the rules associated with that geographical group of housings around him, this can be done by taking a portable handheld device and reprogramming the meter while in the field.
The disadvantage of doing this type of activity in the field is that the maintainer must always have the reprogramming unit with him, be trained in it""s use, and be knowledgeable as to what geographical configuration information to place into the replacement metering mechanism. In many cases the replacement cannot be done for lack of the proper tools, or the replacement is done with the wrong data and configuration information.
Therefore, there is a need for an electronic parking meter system in which the electronic metering mechanism is automatically configured on placement in its housing.
The invention is directed to an electronic parking meter comprising a meter housing, an electronic metering mechanism within the housing, a memory positioned within the housing separate from the electronic metering mechanism for storing configuration information associated with a pre-selected group comprising one or more electronic meters and an interface for coupling the memory to the electronic metering mechanism for downloading the configuration information into the electronic metering mechanism.
In accordance with another aspect, the invention is directed to a method of configuring an electronic parking meter having a replaceable electronic metering mechanism within a meter housing, comprising the steps of positioning a memory within the meter housing separate from the electronic metering mechanism, storing configuration information associated with a pre-selected group of one or more electronic meters within the memory and coupling the memory to the electronic metering mechanism for loading the configuration information into the electronic metering mechanism.
With regard to a further aspect, the invention is directed to a method of configuring an electronic parking meter having a replaceable electronic metering mechanism within a meter housing, comprising the steps of positioning a memory within the housing separate from the electronic metering mechanism wherein configuration information associated with a pre-selected group of one or more meters is stored within the memory, and coupling the memory to the electronic metering mechanism for loading the configuration information into the electronic metering mechanism.
In accordance with another aspect, the invention is directed to a method of replacing an electronic metering mechanism within a meter housing of an electronic meter, comprising the steps of removing the electronic metering mechanism from the meter housing, maintaining configuration information associated with the electronic meter in storage in the meter housing, inserting a replacement electronic metering mechanism within the meter housing and loading the configuration information stored in the meter housing into the replacement electronic metering mechanism.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, current parking meter status information is stored in the separate housing memory and the memory includes an interface for accessing the memory from the exterior of the housing.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, the housing memory includes a real time clock chip.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the housing memory is located within an electronic lock that provides access to cash accumulated within the meter housing.
With regard to a further aspect of the invention, the pre-selected group of electronic meters is determined by location, such as geographical location. In addition, the configuration information includes parking meter location and/or parking restriction information. This information comprises one or more of the following: city defined post location number, street name and closest civic number, latitude and longitude coordinates as defined by a GPS system, parking rates, parking time limit, allowed parking periods, payment required parking periods.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention, will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.